If I can tempt you with my gralefrit’s, then maybe you can be encouraged to actually taste the real thing.“Mariupol. The link with this web site should be obvious: I am a God-lover/Jesus follower/Baptist church minister/aspiring-theologian/husband/father/grandfather from England, but feel that any attempts to explain the divine grapefruit of God’s Word only end up as a stuttering and incoherent stumble towards something that stretches and leans towards the real thing. Gralefrit is a made-up word coined by the undercover policeman (played by Robin Ellis) in an episode of Fawlty Towers (A Touch of Class) who, when ordering breakfast from the maid Polly, assumed the persona of an ignorant illiterate, and ordered his grapefruit by stumbling through the menu and asked for a “gralefrit’. Gralefrit is (another) blog of theological musings and sermons and other juicy tit-bits from a follower of Jesus Christ, hoping to be joined by others along the Way. I thank God for you and the ministry God has given you. Michael was accompanied by a very talented young man named Moses who played magnificently on an instrument I dare not even try to name!!! I also discovered that their next concert on the Friday was with another person that has inspired my in ministry and in the Gospel, Ian Stackhouse at Millmead Baptist Church in Guildford, and I must confess to envy that Michael was also the preacher on the Sunday Morning, you can listen here: He said, without a trace of judgementalism or vitriol, “You want to show your kids you love them? Stop buying them things! The world is dying to be listened to – by the listener listening with all his heart.” Boom! Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above…”įinally, he spoke about one of the needs of our very busy and distracted age: the need to listen and to be listened to. “Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, God of love Michael also spoke of Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933), a professor of literature, navy chaplain, ambassador to Holland and a pastor, who penned ‘ Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee’: He spoke of an American evangelist who died in tragic circumstances in 1901 called Maltbie Babcock, who penned several hymns including This is My Fathers World, which contains the line that Michael said had had a profound and beautiful impact on him, as being the best line he’d ever known: “In the rustling grass, I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere.” That we need to learn the lost art of lament: “Worship Him with your wounds, for He is wounded too.” This is something I’ve been thinking about for a few years, but it is a very hard thing to get right or do well in the Church, and I am sure I’m not alone as a pastor when I say I need help to do this well. He encouraged us to not be so triumphalistic in our gathered worship. Michael avoids both these Babylonian destroyers!Īlso, during the concert, Michael spoke in between some of the songs. This is partly why I love Michael’s music so much, because he, as a musician, has worked closely theologians – if only more Christian singer-songwriters would filter their lyrics through an actual theologian, our ‘ praise and worship’ scene might not be so naive in falling into triumphalism or individualism. Lane during the concert and only when I googled him afterwards did I make the connection.
I was also pleased to make the link with Michael’s mentor, Dr William Lane, whose commentary on the Gospel of Mark I have. I played this CD to death, and behold, it still lives! A cathedral of words in music and song that soared like an eagle on the heights proclaiming the victory of God over sin and death. Last but not least, Michael’s CD on Revelation called Unveiled Hope – has a majestic, transcendent quality to it that raises the soul to heights as yet unimagined. Although I am a Pastor now who teaches the Bible and theology, and preaches most weeks in a church, I knew back in the 1990’s that this music was preparing me, in a way then, unknown, to be ready to be tutored in the the Holy Scriptures.
I learned the beauty and story of the Old Testament through his Ancient Faith CD.
This became a life-long challenge to me that I was not to flatten the Gospel of Jesus Christ with my boring accounts of it, whether by word or deed, but to raise people to the heights that they may glimpse the glory of God, and taste and see that God is good. Michael’s 29 songs in ‘ The Life‘ – an account of the life of Jesus that I don’t think has been bettered, really gave me a love for the dynamic force and transcendent beauty of the Gospel.
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